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Ben Lovejoy

benlovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer who started his career on PC World and has written for dozens of computer and technology magazines, as well as numerous national newspapers, business and in-flight magazines. He has also written two technothriller novels , a romcom novel, and an SF novella series.

He is old enough to have owned the original Macintosh. He currently owns an M1 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro, a MacBook Air 11, 12.9-inch iPad Pro (LTE 256GB), iPhone 13 Pro Max (256GB), Dell Ultrawide 49-inch monitor, an Apple Watch (Series 4 WiFi) and multiple HomePods – he suspects it might be cheaper to have a cocaine habit than his addiction to all things anodised aluminum.

He thinks wires are evil and had a custom desk made to hide them, known as the OC Desk for obvious reasons.

He’s known for his op-ed and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review:

He considers 1000 miles a good distance for a cycle ride and Chernobyl a suitable tourist destination. What can we say, he’s that kind of chap.

He speaks fluent English but only broken American, so please forgive any Anglicised spelling in his posts.

If @benlovejoy-ing him on twitter, please follow him first so that he can DM you if appropriate. If you have information you can pass on, you can also email him. If you would like to comment on one of his pieces, please do so in the comments – he does read them all.

Connect with Ben Lovejoy

Apple journaling app will be part of iOS 17; Day One being Sherlocked, says founder

Apple reportedly Sherlocking the Day One app (shown)

A new report says that one of the new features being introduced as part of iOS 17 is an Apple journaling app, along the lines of the popular Day One app (shown above).

The new app will be one of the stock apps pre-installed on all new iPhones, and will reportedly be able to automatically track your location and read data from other Apple apps …

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Apple paid Masimo exec millions of dollars to steal pulse oximeter tech, claims company

Apple Watch Masimo patent ITC ban US oximeter blood oxygen

Apple paid a Masimo exec millions of dollars worth of shares – as well as doubling his salary – in order to persuade him to bring patented blood oxygen tech to the company, claims a new report today.

Today’s report is the latest episode in a long-running battle between the two companies over whether or not the Apple Watch’s pulse oximeter uses Masimo’s patented tech …

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Bar theft tactic sees iPhone owners permanently locked out of Apple accounts

Locked out of Apple accounts | Photo of phone in bar

A spate of iPhone thefts in bars is resulting in owners finding themselves permanently locked out of their Apple accounts, in some cases losing access to years’ worth of irreplaceable photos.

As is often the case, the detail of the story is less dramatic than the headline – in this case, “The iPhone Setting Thieves Use to Lock You Out of Your Apple Account” …

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TSMC Arizona plants facing ‘unacceptable’ US rules; company wants twice as much money

TSMC Arizona plants | A16 chip shown

Act surprised! There’s a potential snag in the plan for Apple chips to be made in the US by TSMC. The company’s A-series and M-series chipmaker says that the US government is imposing “unacceptable” conditions on the two TSMC Arizona plants it is building.

TSMC is said to have been offered tax credits worth $7-8 billion, but a new report says it is looking for the government to double its incentives to around $15B, and to waive the profit-sharing terms attached to the CHIPS Act …

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Apple Saket photos shared ahead of tomorrow’s opening

Apple Saket photos

A day ahead of the official opening, Apple Saket photos have been shared by the Cupertino company. This will be the second retail store in India, opening just two days after the spectacular Apple BKC.

CEO Tim Cook yesterday opened Apple BKC in Mumbai, and will likely do the same at Apple Saket in New Delhi. Sadly, this one looks far less impressive …

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Apple’s fight against iPhone sideloading was pointless at best, harmful at worst

iPhone sideloading | iPhone and Mac

Apple put up a lengthy fight against being forced to allow iPhone sideloading – the ability for owners to install apps directly from a developer’s website, in the same way we can a Mac app.

The company even went as far as arguing that Macs weren’t safe from malware because users can download apps directly. But ultimately the battle was pointless, and may even have been harmful …

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NSO zero-click iPhone hack accessed HomeKit, but blocked by Lockdown Mode

NSO zero-click iPhone hack | Screenshot of Lockdown Mode alert

An NSO zero-click iPhone hack worked by gaining access to HomeKit on the device, but it was blocked by those using Apple’s Lockdown Mode security feature, with the phone alerting them to the access attempt.

However, two other NSO zero-click attacks seemingly succeeded – both exploiting vulnerabilities in the Find My app …

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Tim Cook opens Apple BKC store, expresses delight at early Macintosh [U: Official photos]

Tim Cook opens Apple BKC

Photos and video clips have been shared of Tim Cook opening the Apple BKC store in Mumbai earlier today – including his surprised and delighted look when a customer turned up with an early Macintosh. Update: Apple’s official photos added to the end of the post.

Apple yesterday showed off the store in a set of photos, and it’s definitely high up there in the rankings of the most beautiful Apple Stores

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Advanced iPad Pro OLED screen reports boosted by LG news

Advanced iPad Pro OLED | Wallpaper

We’ve been hearing consistent reports that the first iPad Pro OLED screens will use an advanced process designed to make them brighter, as well as boosting their longevity. This is backed today by a new report that LG has now reached a new milestone in its work on the screen tech for Apple, following Samsung’s lead.

We’re expecting the first iPad OLED screens to differ from iPhone ones in two main ways …

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Make Something Wonderful printed books on eBay – and rapidly being removed

Make Something Wonderful printed books | eBay listings

When we learned that a limited run of Make Something Wonderful printed books had been produced by the Steve Jobs Archive to gift to a number of Apple and Disney employees, it was only a matter of time before some of them ended up on eBay.

We weren’t expecting it to happen quite this soon, however, nor in such numbers. However, it appears that the auction site may now be removing these listings …

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